YMMV / Wolf Hall

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Cromwell facilitate Anne's downfall simply because he remembered what happened the last time someone failed Henry in getting him out of a marriage and thought "it's her or me"; or was he also taking the opportunity to get revenge for her role in Wolsey's disgrace and death? (Anne certainly seems to think the latter.)
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Cromwell recalls his father's advice to cross his wrists to "confuse the pain" when he burns his hand. This actually works to reduce pain, according to a 2011 study, though only by about 3%.
• Americans Hate Tingle: This series did poorly in Catholic majority countries, due to the negative potrayal of the Catholic characters. Thomas More and John Fisher are both canonized saints in the Catholic Church, so it only makes sense that Catholics would be upset by the negative and villainous potrayal. Jane Seymore's potrayal as an Alpha Bitch and a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing did NOT go well with Catholic viewers either, as well as historians.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Deliberately invoked several times by Mantel for readers aware of the history (even though the characters are not). Gems include:
  • There are numerous references to Anne giving a son.
  • Cromwell and Jane Seymour have a constant near-romance that Cromwell resists the moment that Henry VIII takes an interest in her, though he discusses with Jane the possibility of marrying her after Henry's likely dalliance with her ends.
• Jerkass Woobie: Towards the Woobie end of the scale, Anne; she's scheming, bitchy and arrogant but she (probably) isn't guilty of most of the things she's charged with, and she genuinely wanted to be a good queen and to provide Henry with a male heir but is turned upon and sold out by her husband, supporters and family the moment she no longer benefits them. On the Jerkass end, Anne's sister-in-law Lady Rochford: a charmless, humourless, snobbish, malicious gossip who's repeatedly publicly humiliated by her sister-in-law and trapped in a barren, loveless Awful Wedded Life with a man she loathes.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • As Cromwell himself seems to acknowledge, he crosses this line and "loses his soul" by arranging Anne's death (and to a lesser extent those of her accused lovers) on what are probably completely false charges. In particular, he's hit with the realization that he did all of these underhanded actions in the service of a king who is a dissolute monster.
  • Henry crosses this in a chilling way, in the last episode of the series as he showed absolutely no sadness nor feeling towards Anne Boleyn's death. Rather, he embraces Cromwell with a huge smile on his face.
• Nightmare Fuel: The Sweating Sickness. Cromwell goes out in the morning with his wife feeling poorly and returns that afternoon to find her dead and (in the series) his daughters dying. Even in the era of modern medicine, the swift fatality is frightening. The disease killed thousands across Europe, but thankfully it vanished after 1551. (Its pathogen is still unknown, but is thought by some to have been a form of hantavirus.)
• One-Scene Wonder: Lady Elizabeth Stafford, Duchess of Norfolk. In her single scene she is one of Anne's attendants as she is about to be executed. Lady Stafford is a magnificent Deadpan Snarker with a thinly veiled contempt for Anne and heavily implies she's getting what she deserves.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • It may take you a while to realize that Cromwell's son Gregory is actually Tom Holland, now playing the Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man.
  • Of course, people nowadays know Anne Boleyn's Claire Foy better as Elizabeth II in the two first series of The Crown.
• Stoic Woobie: Mary Tudor is depicted as this in her first appearance, standing beside her mother's chair although clearly in considerable pain, at least until Cromwell pulls up a chair for her and urges her to sit. Truth in Television, as Mary was chronically ill for most of her life and died aged 42.
• The Woobie
  • Cromwell of all people; he's routinely abused as a child, runs away from home and his family because even his sister doesn't want to risk keeping him in her house, and becomes successful only to have basically everyone he deals with insult him due to his having come up from nothing. Then his Parental Substitute, wife and young daughters all die on him in fairly rapid succession.
  • Mary Tudor is separated from her mother, neglected by her father, threatened by her father's courtiers, labelled as a bastard, forced into her half-sister's household to be a lady in waiting, and Anne Boleyn conspires to have her reputation ruined. When Katherine is dying, Mary isn't even allowed to go and say farewell.
  • Mary Boleyn is constantly pimped out by her family long past the point of endurance, while they insult and hold her in contempt for what they're forcing her to do. Henry won't even let her get married in order to escape being used and exploited, since he wants to keep her around as a convenient bed-warmer when Anne's pregnant.

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